I would like to thank the following people for their continued support to make the completion of this dissertation a success. My supervisor Harpreet for her continuous advice and guidance through the project, my sociology tutor Hasnain for imparting and equipping me with the necessary knowledge to undertake this project and John the dissertation tutor for his continued advice as I worked through the project. My friends Charity, Becky and Emma for their continued moral support while working on this. My parents too for are highly appreciated for their support. Above all God for making it possible.Statistics from the immigration department in the UK reveal that up to 40,000 visa clearances into the UK were granted on the grounds of family. In comparison to this, 300,000 visas were issued for study purposes and 140000 for work obligations. Most of the visas issued to the UK for family members are those of accompanying marriage partners or fiancé instead of close relationship with the children CITATION Dav01 l 1033 (Jacobs, 2001). This statistical evidence point on the need for the UK government to deal with the increased abuse of right of movement by people into the UK in the name of marriage partnerships of convenience. This is so because of the ease of those moving into the UK beating the stringent immigration controls.

The increase in the number of people abusing these immigration laws increase the urgency of dealing with sham marriages especially from Africans moving into the UK. These kinds of marriages of convenience are often used by those whose live in the UK has expired or close to expiry and have often exhausted all available means of extending their stay in the country. Most of the motivation for engaging in these sham marriages activities includes the financial gain from such activities. This paper will therefore have an in-depth examination of the concepts of sham marriages in the UK. An examination of the factors that influence African minorities to engage in such practices will be done. Immigration policies in the UK and existing literature on Sham marriages will be analyzed in addition to sociological reason for the existence of Sham marriages CITATION Tar10 l 1033 (Janoski, 2010).

The UK legal system, it is not a criminal offence to engage in sham marriage but rather the prosecution is done of crimes that are related to the offences committed. These include perjury, immigration conspiracy and bigamy. In the event that an immigrant makes an application for entry into the UK and makes claim of civil partnership and it is discovered to be a sham then the person would be ejected from the UK. The UK has put in place different mechanisms and provisions to deal with such cases of people entering the UK through sham marriages. Such measures include scrutiny of these marriages to determine if they are indeed legitimate. Upon discovery of such arrangements being a sham and only a tool of beating the immigration rules certain penalties are applied to them like deterrence which will prevent them from commission of the offences in future.

The following are the practices that must be put in place to deal with this menace this include giving the relevant authorities the power to stop a marriage from taking place as soon as discovery is made that it is a sham marriage. A proper definition of what constitutes a marriage should be given in order to properly identify a marriage that is of convenience.

Family migration into the UK is quite a common phenomenon. This has happened historically for quite a long time since the early 1960’s. Since then it has become a huge source of immigration into the UK. The integration of the new migrants is dependent on the efforts of the migrants and the social political and economic conditions that are prevalent in the UK. Efforts to restrict the entry of certain migrants into the UK are quite questionable with questions being raised as to whether it is a violation of human rights through the restriction of freedom of movement.

Methodology

A combination of primary research and secondary research was used for data collection.

The under laying research was conducted in order to establish the ability of using web questionnaires as a quantitative method in analyzing married people behaviors as opposed to the traditional use of support-administered questionnaires. For data gathering purposes with focus on couple’s behaviors, the research utilized the use of web questionnaires as quantitative approach with a tally of 40 couples constituting of both males and females. The findings and conclusions credibility is extensively dependent on the research design quality, data collection and management and the final analysis of the data collected. In justifying the means in which the study results were to be obtained, discussed in the underlying chapters are the procedures and methods exploited with a basis on description of data obtained, how the data obtained is to be processed/analyzed, its interpretation and final correlation of collected data to come up with a credible conclusion. Explicitly, the research will cover; research design to be utilized and methods, data collection materials, respondents to be analyzed and the data analysis process.

Research Method

Data collected form an online web-based questionnaire will be analyzed after a cumulated period of 14 days after administration of online questionnaires to individual couples. No contact was made between the primary investigator and the couples but they were rather handed sealed envelopes containing consent forms. Those who were inclined to participate after acquisition of consent were top use a link provided in the information sheet sealed in the envelope that guided them to the online questionnaire platform. The platform was designed to give a 14 day open window for questionnaire completion since distribution date with an approximated questions estimated to take around 10 minutes that included a series of variables. The adapted variables will then be scored on the five point Likert scale on the basis of (1=Never, 2 = Not Often, 3 = Sometimes, 4 = Often, 5 = Always).

Statistical Analysis

Descriptive and correlated analyses were carried out on all variables with express emphasis being laid on reckless behavior analyses to describe common characteristics among participants. Chi-square tests came into play here to pint out a comparison in the socio-demographics of the study defined as age, gender and cultural identity of the participants in the study.

Just like all women in the UK, the immigrant women are highly risked individuals prone to any form of domestic violence. Because of their status it is difficult to report their abuse. The immigrant women who end up in the UK through illegal ways like human trafficking. They, therefore, feel trapped in these abusive relationships because of the stringent laws of immigration, social discrimination, language barrier and lack of financial resources. There have been efforts by the federal UK to pass legislation that is aimed at protecting the immigrant from all forms of domestic violence.

The federal laws have opened up safe and new ways to gain citizenship in UK. The domestic abuse issues on immigrant women are still thorny not only to the immigrant women but also women in the UK. Most of the immigrant women that victims of domestic violence are Latinas and Koreans. More so, the brunt of domestic violence is borne by married immigrant women than the unmarried immigrant women CITATION Lou04 l 1033 (Marshall, 2004).

The most common form of blackmail in this kind of abusive is the immigration status as a control tool. This is a common tool that makes the partners in these relationships to stay put. This further prolongs the abuse in such a relationship. The immigrant women often are prone to a high rate of abuse because they of the mere fact that they originate form cultures that allow domestic violence and due to the fact that they less access to social and legal services compared to the legal citizens of the UK .

Immigrant women who are battered and make attempts to flee the country cannot have access to shelter, food or financial assistance. The barriers the battered women face include the fact that they may not have limited access to a certified court interpreter while reporting any battering complains to the police. Another hurdle they encounter is the difficulty they encounter in the acquisition of information relating to the legal system and their rights CITATION Son09 l 1033 (Sydney, 2009).

There have been various efforts to eliminate this violence against immigrant women. The bills have been made into law. The laws are aimed at the reduction of domestic violence in UK. The laws are intended to make the women to report any form of abuse leveled against them to the relevant authorities. These laws are aimed at making some specific protections against the immigrants.

These laws are meant to cover even the gay and lesbian community. The laws clearly define the right to obtain some legal protection from the consent. That any person regardless of the legal status has the right to be freed from an abusive spouse. Victims of domestic abuse in UK are to have access to any help offered by the government. These services by the government include interpretation, safety planning, counseling, emergency planning and medical care. If an immigrant does not qualify to get legal representation then the law requires the provision of a legal officer to assist in the resolving of any domestic violence dispute CITATION LEd05 l 1033 (Purcell, 2005).

There are several endeavors by the UK governments to make amendments on laws that would protect the immigrant women from any form of domestic violence. The question of immigration has become one of the issues subject to debate in most parts of the world. As a matter of fact, it is among the subjects with legislations being proposed and enacted day in day out. Most countries all over the world have very stringent laws concerning this particular issue. The UK therefore is no exception. Through its law making body, it has come up with a number of laws that tend to restrict immigration into the UK. For instance, the naturalization Act extended the time period for non- residents of the UK to become citizens of the UK to fourteen years. The Alien Friends Act gave the prime minister the authority to deport any residents that were considered by the government to cause any danger to the peace and security of the UK. Finally, the Alien Enemies Act gave the prime minister the authority to apprehend and deport alien citizens in the case that their native countries were at war with the UK. These are just but a small percentage if laws that restrict immigration into the UK. Some of them have been repealed and amended. However, they only get more stringent. Why, one would ask, should non-citizens not be allowed into the UK CITATION Lou04 l 1033 (Marshall, 2004).

In the case that the government of the UK allows non-citizens into the country of course through loosening the belt a little in terms of legislation, the economy of the UK is bound to become more efficient. This is because the consequence of immigration would be a reduction in the bottlenecks that face the country in terms of labor shortage, both skilled and unskilled CITATION Jop03 l 1033 (Charles, 2003). This would thereby imply that employment opportunities are created both for the immigrants and the Native Americans. Skilled labor supply in the UK takes a bell shape. This simply implies that there are a high number of people equipped with various skills for various fields but at the same time, there are still an equally high number of unskilled people. This calls for immigration of skilled labor into the country so as to balance the two. Immigrant labor force constitutes about 16 percent of the total labor force in the country.

Moreover, in the case that immigration legislations are made less bureaucratic, a conducive environment for investors would be created. Entrepreneurs would be encouraged to come to the country and thereby explore the underutilized resources in the country to their full potential. This would also encourage foreign investors to make an investment in the country. The effects of increased investment to the Gross Domestic Product of a country are known, all positive. CITATION Joh02 l 1033 (Higham, 2002)A constant and sustained rise in the GDP of a country is the true meaning of economic growth and development. Foreign investment also creates employment opportunities for both the citizens and non-citizens of a country. This simply implies that there would be a rise in the per capita income of the country. It is very important to note that increased investment implies increased savings and thereby the credit facilities are also increased. All these point to the economic growth and development of a country. CITATION LEd05 l 1033 (Purcell, 2005)In the event that the UK government allows non- citizens of the country into the country, it would promote cultural interaction and peaceful co-existence to some extent. It is ‘to some extent’ since later in the paper, we shall see how immigration could disrupt the peace that exists within a certain country. The world has a very great population and as such, a lot of diversities exist among the inhabitants of the world. As such, there are bound to be certain prejudices that exist about certain communities, their beliefs and so on and so forth. CITATION TGL10 l 1033 (Lagos, 2010)The best way to deal with such prejudices would be to create a platform through which various people from various parts of the world interact so as to understand each other’s cultures thereby demystifying certain myths and misconceptions that have for a long time been exaggerated. Immigration is one such platform. At the end of the day, peaceful co-existence between people or groups of people from varied social, cultural and economic backgrounds will be achieved. Critics could dispute this school of thought by attempting to compare peaceful co-existence with the cost on security that immigration comes with. CITATION Lou04 l 1033 (Marshall, 2004)Allowing non – citizens into the UK promotes the growth of the military force of the country. It has been recorded that non US citizens have served in the UK army since the time of the Revolutionary War. This implies that this group of people has served in the army for a very long time now. CITATION Rat90 l 1033 (Jekkins, 1990) Every year, there are about 8000 non UK citizens who enroll into the army. However, the military force is indeed a very sensitive section in the defense forces. As such, these non- citizens are subject to a lot of scrutiny and analysis and as such, they are expected to meet a number of requirements. This is owed to the sensitivity of this particular department. There are certain posts and ranks beyond which a non-citizen cannot serve in the US army. In essence, each rank comes with its own minimal requirements. However, the current government has made attempts to give automatic citizenship to those non-citizens that have served in the UK army. This process, however, is still underway. However, this is a very critical area of security, not just in the UK but in most parts of the world generally. As a result, security, or rather, insecurity, is the main reason as to why there exist stringent laws that restrict immigration into a country. This takes us to the next segment of this paper, where the associated bottlenecks of immigration will be discussed. CITATION LEd05 l 1033 (Purcell, 2005)Indiscriminant immigration is the mother of all the security issues that are witnessed in any country. As a result, the government tries to make laws on immigration more stringent day in day out. The security of a country is one very sensitive area. CITATION Dav01 l 1033 (Jacobs, 2001) As a matter of fact, the performance of a government is more often than not determined through the achievements it has made in security. At the end of the day, matters security is given number one priority at the expense of any other issue. Terror attacks are more often than not, facilitated by non-citizens of a country. The terrorists attacks 5that took place on the 11th of September in the US had a very great impact on the history of immigration. This is because each and every of the attackers that were able to be identified with respect to this particular attack was foreign born. They were all non- citizens of the America. After these attacks, the government of the UK targeted to ensure that the bar on immigration was raised even higher. As a result, there was the need of creation of policies and enactment of pieces of legislation that by all means, restricted immigration to the latter. This was indeed a period of anti- immigration. It is very important to note however, that at the end of the day, this particular reaction of the government towards immigration was not fruitful at all. This is attributed to the voice of the civil society that is by all means finding its way to the ears of the government. Advocates of civil rights have put forward their argument that the government could be going too far by enacting extra stringent laws that seek to limit or hinder immigration. According to this particular group, the government is, in the process, violating the rights and freedoms of immigrants. CITATION Tar10 l 1033 (Janoski, 2010) The government tends to be focusing more on investigations involving immigrants as opposed to focusing on the severity it is imposing on immigration through the policies that it comes up with. At this point in time therefore, the country is experiencing one of the greatest challenges of civil rights ever. This calls for an immediate remedy.

In the case that the government of the UK allows indiscriminate immigration into the country, there would arise the problem of population upsurge. Through the restriction of immigration, the government is in one way or another trying to control the population of its country. Currently, the population of the citizens of the UK of America is rising at a very fast rate. CITATION Son09 l 1033 (Sydney, 2009) The implications of population growth arte one too many, some positive, some negative, with the negative taking a greater proportion. For instance, increased population growth creates a strain on the already scarce social and economic resources. In the event that immigration is not restricted or rather it is guarded by less stringent laws, the extra population would inflate this problem even further. Population growth, moreover, also strains the government. CITATION Joh02 l 1033 (Higham, 2002)The government is charged with the responsibility of service provision. Just like in the case of resources, an extra population would further compound this problem. Therefore, the government tries to control the problem of population upsurge even as it restricts immigration. The government could also aim at establishing, or rather implementing quarantine when it restricts immigration. CITATION Dav01 l 1033 (Jacobs, 2001) Quarantine is the process by which the government restricts the immigration more especially of non- citizens from a country that has been affected by a certain epidemic. This way, it is able to prevent the spread of a certain disease that could be rather harmful to its citizens. A good example is the recent restriction of people from African countries that had been affected by the Ebola virus. This was purely for the good of the people of the UK, considering the severity of this virus. CITATION LEd05 l 1033 (Purcell, 2005)Immigration could dilute the cultural identity of a country, unemployment as well as the depreci8ation of wages in a country. Wages are determined in the labor market. As a matter of fact, wages have an inverse relationship with labor, that is, the availability of labor. When labor is easily and readily available, the wages are low. The inverse is also true. When labor is not readily available, the wages are usually high. In the event that non-citizens are indiscriminately allowed into the UK, this would mean that there would be a high supply of labor. As such, labor would be easily and readily available at the end of the day thereby creating a downward pressure on the wages. CITATION Rat90 l 1033 (Jekkins, 1990)This, at the end of the day, would affect both the citizens and non-citizens of the country since they are all part of the labor market. This is a major setback to the economic development of any country as it greatly affects the GDP of a country as well as the Per Capita Income. CITATION Joh02 l 1033 (Higham, 2002) Cultural dilution could also occur as a result of indiscriminate immigration into a country based on citizenship. As seen earlier, indiscriminate immigration would promote the elimination of prejudices that people could have about certain cultures. However, it could in the same way, dilute the cultures of the native land. This is bound to be experienced especially where there is a lot of interaction between the natives and the immigrants. The natives tend to adopt the mannerisms of the immigrants. Through this, a country ends up losing its cultural identity. Final is the problem of unemployment. In one way or another, this is connected with labor. Indiscriminate immigration leads to growth of the labor market as seen earlier. This labor could be both skilled and unskilled. Whichever way, there is bound to be increased manpower. CITATION Dav01 l 1033 (Jacobs, 2001) However, the increased manpower is not necessarily in areas where there was a shortage of labor. In any case, the increased manpower would disrupt the equilibrium that already exists in the labor market. At the end of the day, the supply of labor is too high to the extent that there is a surplus leading to the problem of unemployment.

From the analysis above, it is possible to put the benefits as well as the challenges that would come with the government of the UK allowing immigration. As a result, it can be concluded that this act would have its advantages as well as its limitations. However, the downside of less stringent policies on immigration outweighs the advantages or rather the benefits. At the end of the day, immigration would promote growth of labor, cultural integration and so on but at the expense of other issues that are very important to any country, security topping the list. CITATION Lou04 l 1033 (Marshall, 2004)The recommendation arrived at by this research paper would be a slight change in the policies that restrict immigration. Basically, the government should, by all means adjust the policies that it comes up with so as to ensure that the rights of the immigrants are protected but at the same time, the rights of the native citizens are protected as well. This strikes a balance between the rights and freedoms of the two groups. Moreover, the government should also ensure effective implementation of the already existing policies to the latter.

Results

According to the Asylum Act of 1999, the immigration registration officers were required by law to furnish the Home office with evidence in the event that they suspected a marriage was sham and was only made possible for purposes of beating the immigration system. Since 2001, the following figures show the number of reported suspected cases of sham.

Year Number of reported suspicious marriages

2001 752

2002 1205

2003 2648

2004 3578

2005 452

2006 282

2007 384

2008 344

2009 561

2010 934

2011 1741

2012 1891

2013 986

From this tabular presentation, it is clear that in 2005 there was a reduction in the number of reported cases of suspicious sham marriages. This is attributed to the government policy of introduction of certificate of approval. Upon suspicion of a marriage being a sham, the immigration officials were legally allowed to make a home visit to the couple’s house to determine if indeed the marriage was genuine. This could lead to arrest of the individuals if it was proved that their relationship was ingénuine. Prosecution and charging in court for the crime of facilitation of illegal immigration would then follow/

There have been different proposal on the amendment of the marriage Act that would result in the alteration of the procedure of marriage notice. The period of notice is proposed to be changed to two weeks from the initial 3 weeks. The notice by license that was initially a day was got rid of. It was mandatory for people to give notice of their nationality and residence this would be beneficial to get rid of the concept of sham marriages.

The scheme of certificate of approval was used as a government strategy to get rid of sham marriages in the UK. It was somewhat successful in dealing with sham marriages. The procedure was such that those without leave or with 3 or 6 months remaining at their application time were automatically denied marrying permission. This translated to a reduction on reports of sham marriages as shown in the table below:

Year Received application Issued Denied

2005 13,865 9,725 2,092

2006 17,955 14,569 1,024

2007 17,316 14,518 409

2008 18,720 16,114 734

2009 24,042 19,835 1,517

2010 23,052 13,749 876

From this statistics, the number of marriages fell by 10 percent between 2004 and 2005. This was as a result of the introduction of certificate of approval that was aimed at reduction on the number of sham marriages. The introduction made it impossible for sham marriages to thrive hence the reduction in the number of marriage in those said years. However this has met a lot of opposition from the human rights activist who consider it a violation of human rights thus leading to its eventual abolition in totality.

Since 2003, there have been several changes to rules of immigration increasing the period from I year to 2 years for one to settle in the UK on the basis of marriage. This period later increased to five years in 2012 in give a better test of relationship genuineness so that settlement in the UK can be based on the relationship.

Several operations have resulted in arrests of different nationals in relation to sham marriages. The following are some of the results of people experiences in relation to the arrest on sham marriages. In an operation between the Dutch government and the UK that was aimed at arresting Dutch nationals who were in collusion with some Nigerian nationals in order to allow them stay in the UK. This led to around 130 arrests in both countries with 77 convictions on sham marriages some serving a jail term of up to 100 years for the crime. This led to extradition of Dutch nationals for colluding to fraud the immigration authorities in sham marriages arrangements. This operation also revealed other crimes that were committed by these individuals who engage in sham marriages. Some of the crime uncovered includes money laundering, sexual assault and human trafficking.Factors that contribute to such behaviors by minoritiesCriminology scholars have divergent views on terrorism and organized crime with some describing them as two different crime forms. Terrorism is chiefly driven by ideology and the need for a political revolution. On the other hand, organized crime focuses on acquisition of economic profit through illegal market mechanisms. In recent years there have been efforts to link the two criminal activities. This started after the discovery that proceeds made from sales of drugs by some criminal gangs were used to fund terrorist activities. This was as an effort to advance a particular political agenda. Terrorism therefore benefited from organized crime in the sense that they got funding or their activities of the illegal businesses operated by these criminal gangs. The symbiotic relationship between organized crime and terrorism has been in existence spanning numerous of decades. Because of the absence of financial means of supporting terrorist activities, the terrorists involve themselves in different forms of lucrative crimes through organized crime. The denial by authorities on accessing means to conduct the terrorist activities, there involvement in crime is a way to procure the means of carrying out their activities.

Numerous ways of human exploitation and participation in illegal markets are prerequisites of carrying out successful terrorist activities. Crime therefore has become a means to an end for terrorist because of lack of enough financing sources. Following the attack on the United States in September 2011 close links have been made between terrorism and transnational organized crime, money laundering, illegal drug and arms trafficking. It is the collaboration between illegal arms traffickers and terrorists that is fueling the terrorism activities even more. This is because the terrorists use the acquired firearms and nuclear bombs to instigate their terror activities thus promoting their political or religious agenda.

There is increasing concern in an effort to understand the way terrorist fund their activities through criminal activities. These efforts are to solve and to find mechanisms to prevent or even disrupt these criminal activities in order to prevent terrorism. Most of these organized criminal activities like member recruitment, violence incitation, hiding of sources of funding and fundraising have been criminalized all over the world. Emerging forms of terrorism today are based on markets of violence and illicit economies. This has been influenced by the increasing conflicts between the world superpowers. The terrorist groups are able to gain advantage by exerting violence more in an effort to gain some reputation as being a violent group of people. The terrorists are able to finance their activities through shadow economies. The shadow economies are driven by their own by laws setting standards for themselves on smuggling and trafficking. The shadow economies created by these terror groups are also controlled by the demand for their illegal merchandise. The shadow economies are concerned with immigrant trafficking, drug markets, money laundering

In recent years there has been an emergence of transnational communities that interact beyond specific geographical boundaries in solidarity. The emergence of these transnational communities of criminal will be the focus of this research paper with an in-depth analysis of Russian Mafia groups and their relationship to Terrorism. These organized crime groups have a clear set of networks and scamming that have explored new forms of violence. They have abundant resource for recruitment. These organized criminal gangs have developed some sophisticated organizational system where their intention is to dominate a place then champion for their own political agenda. Another strategy they employ is Internationalization where their ideologies are spread across borders thereby getting more followers hence promoting their terror activities. The gangs are sophisticated in terms of strategies and tactics. This entails the adoption of a new technology and weaponry in their activities.

The convergence between terrorism and organized crime occurs through networking and cross border networks. This is done through huge investments and physical infrastructure rather through hierarchical organization. These networks offer the criminals flexibility, diversity and low visibility to the authorities. The network core values are enhanced by trust between its members and shared religious or other values.

Despite the numerous reservations terror groups have as regards to their ideology and calling, they still participate in drug trade despite their blatant disregard of criminal activities. The terror groups are driven by the ideology mostly religion believes in their acts of terror being a calling from God. Through these ideologies, terrorists are able to attach a cause for their motive of engaging in the heinous acts. Most of the drugs originate from Middle East countries therefore the terrorist take advantage of the trade to finance their activities. In some instances, drugs are used as currency in committing acts of terrorism.

The convergence between terrorism and organized crime occurs through networking and cross border networks. This is done through huge investments and physical infrastructure rather through hierarchical organization. These networks offer the criminals flexibility, diversity and low visibility to the authorities. The network core values are enhanced by trust between its members and shared religious or other values. Numerous ways of human exploitation and participation in illegal markets are prerequisites of carrying out successful terrorist activities. Crime therefore has become a means to an end for terrorist because of lack of enough financing sources. Following the attack on the United States in September 2011 close links have been made between terrorism and transnational organized crime, money laundering, illegal drug and arms trafficking. It is the collaboration between illegal arms traffickers and terrorists that is fueling the terrorism activities even more. This is because the terrorists use the acquired firearms and nuclear bombs to instigate their terror activities thus promoting their political or religious agenda.

There is increasing concern in an effort to understand the way terrorist fund their activities through criminal activities. These efforts are to solve and to find mechanisms to prevent or even disrupt these criminal activities in order to prevent terrorism. Most of these organized criminal activities like member recruitment, violence incitation, hiding of sources of funding and fundraising have been criminalized all over the world. Emerging forms of terrorism today are based on markets of violence and illicit economies. This has been influenced by the increasing conflicts between the world superpowers. The network core values are enhanced by trust between its members and shared religious or other values. Numerous ways of human exploitation and participation in illegal markets are prerequisites of carrying out successful terrorist activities. Crime therefore has become a means to an end for terrorist because of lack of enough financing sources. Following the attack on the United States in September 2011 close links have been made between terrorism and transnational organized crime, money laundering, illegal drug and arms trafficking. It is the collaboration between illegal arms traffickers and terrorists that is fueling the terrorism activities even more. The terrorist groups are able to gain advantage by exerting violence more in an effort to gain some reputation as being a violent group of people. The terrorists are able to finance their activities through shadow economies. The shadow economies are driven by their own bylaws setting standards for themselves on smuggling and trafficking. The shadow economies created by these terror groups are also controlled by the demand for their illegal merchandise. The shadow economies are concerned with immigrant trafficking, drug markets, money laundering.

It is evident that there is a direct connection between organized crime and terrorism. Therefore, the different stakeholders must unite to fight vice there would be increased terrorism activities throughout the globe. A closer detailed look at the evidence linking terrorism and organized crime raise more speculation about the connection between the two vices. Organized crime will continue to provide the terrorists a continuous stream of income to finance their activities. The forms of crime that not so established terror groups might engage in are low yield and therefore may go undetected authorities. It is therefore a lesson to the authorities to make necessary efforts to try early and curb the terror activities.

Poverty as a contributing factor to increase in sham marriagesThe Marxist ideology undermines conditions of production that are required to sustain the never ending capital accumulation. These production conditions include energy, soil, water, and so forth. They also include sufficient public systems of education, general infrastructures, and other services that are not directly produced by capital, but in order for them to accumulate effectively, need capital. When conditions of production get exhausted, the production costs for capital rise. As a result, this second contradiction creates an underproduction crisis trend, with substantial rising cost of labor and inputs, to balance the overproduction trend of too many commodities for too few customers. Similar to Marx’s ambiguity between capital and labor, this second contradiction thus threatens the existence of global equality. These inequalities in under consumption result to unnecessary consumption, a high debt rate and bankruptcy. For equality, Income needs be guaranteed and consequently markets will become unnecessary. Communities and elected governments will fairly decide upon the allocation of resources CITATION Sae02 l 1033 ( Saegert, Thompson, & Warren, 2002).

Global over-consumption is a situation where use of resources overtakes the sustainable capacity of the environment. Global under-consumption arises due to insufficient consumer demand compared to the amount that got produced. The global imbalance between these two causes widespread problems. Most under-consumption within the globe system is caused by social inequity and economic deprivation. In a world reliant on money, hunger is mainly caused by poverty. Since economic deprivation is a prime cause, not only is economic justice a crucial merit in itself but a vital condition of ecological integrity.

The human population has been over consuming, using and abusing the natural resources to points where society is at crossroads. Therefore, as a global population, we are on the verge of unsustainability and extinction. The state subsidies and some global companies distort provision of less nutritious foods by use of liberalist markets. The media emphasize on advertising products with a high amount of sugar and fats. The inactive lifestyle in the present generation makes individuals be laid back with no exercises to do. In a particular aspect of overconsumption, we buy things not to cater for basic needs. We try to satisfy some cavities in our lives and to create prestige about ourselves CITATION Mac09 l 1033 ( MacLeod, 2009).

It is quite evident that deprivation as a result of low income early in life sets individuals on a pathway towards diminished occupational and educational achievement. These low income levels are harmful mainly because the expose the communities into environments that are extremely stressful. Low income communities face an astounding array of physical and psychosocial demands that place so much pressure on the capacities to adapt to life situations and tend to be toxic to the development of the brain and general self-esteem later on in adulthood CITATION Mac09 l 1033 ( MacLeod, 2009).

The distribution of income among communities in the world clearly shows the looming inequality with some people at the top of the income economy structure while some at the bottom. This translates into poor health, poverty, low levels of education, starvation and reduced levels of life expectancies. A substantial number of poor people in most low status communities live in abject poverty while some people are relatively well-off. There is a significant increase in the economic disparities between the poorest communities and the most affluent communities. This means that the gap between the average citizen in the poorest and the richest communities is growing wider and getting wider and so has the chronic stress associated with low income problems CITATION Mac09 l 1033 ( MacLeod, 2009).

From a sociological perspective social structures and social interaction present a crucial and basic understanding of how people in society interrelate and the importance of these relationships. Ideally, it has been argued that both social structures and social interactions are interdependent when it comes to establishing an individual’s identity. This essay will analyze the constant need for human beings to interact for existence while trying to strike a balance between social interaction and social structure in molding people’s identity as a low wage earner.

Individuals growing up in low income communities demonstrate lower achievement in most social aspects of life because they are exposed to a wide range of risks. As a result, these risks build upon each other to elevate the levels of chronic stress within the human body and this chronic stress has a direct influence as it hinders overall performance like in academics by compromising the ability of these individuals to develop the required skills needed to better their lives on virtually all aspects of achievement CITATION Sae02 l 1033 ( Saegert, Thompson, & Warren, 2002).

Low income communities are characteristic of people living in dire conditions and the political power and interests are often inconsiderate and insensitive and this is worsened the scenario as there is an increased level of diversion of resources. As a result of this, the people in this states lack access to basic health, education and food. Saegert ET all state that “Social relationships are structure inn society as a powerful determinant of the health status of all members of the society CITATION Mac09 l 1033 ( MacLeod, 2009).

Individuals from low income families lag behind their higher income counterparts essentially on almost all achievement measures and this gap tends to increase as time goes by. Besides failure by parents to invest adequate time in cognitively stimulating their children, chronic stress bears the potential to hinder the cognitive functioning of a child and also undermines the development skills that are required to enhance academic achievement. Torre states “Low-income parents’ chronic stress affects their kids through chronic activation of their children’s immune systems, which taxes available resources and has long-reaching effects.”

Basically the entire surrounding environment of low income communities such as schools and homes is often chaotic as the residents as highly exposed to pollution, crowding, inadequate school buildings, noise, poor housing, exposure to crime and violence and high rates of family separation and divorce. Such extreme conditions produce chronic stress that is capable of damaging the brain areas associated with memory, attention and language which are the essential determinants for academic success. Growing up in such environments is highly associated with a significant increase in risk factors and it is this elevated risk that links chronic stress to low income communities. Young infants born into low income communities exhibit health trajectories that indicate elevated levels of chronic stress.

There also exists a strong link between chronic stress and achievement. Low income and hence poverty often leads to lower occupational an academic achievement as a result of the numerous risks that children from low income communities which in turn has a negative effect of an individual’s cognitive abilities.

Low income communities, including both adults and children face high levels of chronic stress because of the emotional and financial pressures associated with lack of food and access to health care, low wages, inadequate or in some cases lack of transportation and poor housing. Individuals from such communities are linked to chronic stress due difficulty in paying bills or job related demands. Most of them are stressed as a result of their poor health conditions due to lack of access to basic health care and even if they do it may be of low quality.

Individuals from low income communities are often associated with low achievement school groups which in turn exposes the to lower life expectations, less capable friends or a less rigorous curriculum. All of these further them to a disadvantage and consequently generates even more significant between group gaps. Such splaying is also attributed to poorer health and cognitive deficits that is generated by chronic stress. As a result, this deficit in cognitive ability and poor health then repeatedly disadvantage Low income communities from one social setting to another.

One reason for chronic stress in low income communities is that individuals within that setting lag behind than their high income peers because parents interact with their children in ways that are not conducive for overall achievement. Parents from low income communities tend to be unresponsive and harsh. Therefore despite the fact that low income parents often provide sufficient levels of encouragement and support, their harshness and unresponsiveness however trivial it may be is highly associated with the fact their children will experience a problematic parenting style hence chronic stress CITATION Mac09 l 1033 ( MacLeod, 2009).

In essence, family poverty has an effect on stress and this is in one way or another promoted by being exposed to risk. As much as critics would want to find facts that relate risk exposure to poverty, it would be easier to take this psychological relation just as it is. In any case, it has been put down in documents by a couple of investigators that children from disadvantaged or financially unstable families have a relatively higher level of chronic stress as compared to other children. This conclusion was made after it was established that these children have very high levels of blood pressure. Other studies have as well established that these same children possess very high levels of chronic stress hormones, for instance, cortisol. This finding was coupled with the prevalence of overnight urinary stress hormones in a number of disadvantaged children. Wilkinson in his article states “ An antipathy between hierarchical relations across inequalities of power, income, and status on the one hand, and supportive social relations between equals on the other, is likely to exert a powerful influence on health.” All these illustrations point to the fact that poverty has a direct linkage to stress. In essence, children from disadvantaged families have high levels of chronic stress.

Chronic stress has a number of effects. The effects could either affect one directly or indirectly. The most common effect of chronic stress is its effect on achievement. Chronic stress, to a large extent, affects both the degree and the level of achievement. Several studies have indicated that a great portion of the brain is vulnerable to early childhood deprivation. Some of the parts of the brain that are in this particular category are the language long term memory, executive control as well as long term memory. For this reason, it is crystal clear that the level of achievement of a child is bound to be affected. This is because achievement, in today’s society is determined by education. Education excellence is as a result of good memory as well as diligence. In the case that the brain is affected due to stress for one reason or another, it becomes quite difficult for the child to succeed in future. Generally, it can be deduced that any disadvantages that crop up as a result of the social or economic set up that a child is in greatly affect the achievement of the child in question. Poor children are more often than not, exposed to areas that do not promote cognitive stimulation. This, together with the poor parenting styles they are exposed to, discourage achievement.

In a nutshell, the physical form of stressors that low income communities face is well documented; individuals in low income communities are exposed to environmental conditions such as harmful waste, water pollution, toxins, ambient air, crowding, residential turnover, poor maintenance and sanitation of their neighborhood, crime and traffic congestion. The psychosocial stressors take the form of significantly higher family turmoil levels, violence, lower routine and structure levels in their lives and parental and family separation. It is therefore quite obvious that a combination and exposure to such factors will definitely lead to chronic stress. The social stratification in society is a leading cause of race relations. Race and gender intersect with political and economic forces in such a way that any form of discrimination against them denies one equal rights to political participation, franchise and exercise of citizenship because of the underlying distinction. The specific experiences or discrimination that an individual undergoes may influence their rights to education, food, health care or shelter. It is through these dimensions that the relative positions of race and gender create layers of political and economic inequality.

Feminism as a contributing factor

Feminism has always occupied quite a contradicting and complicated place in the field of critical theory. Since ages of yonder, society has always been divided under patriarchal terms with men being fostered as the dominant species in virtually all aspects of life be it the basic level of family, political, economic and the most equivocal of all religious fields. Feminism is further branched out into four varieties nurturing the women’s feminism and how they feel about themselves in society. One, there is liberal feminism that which circumvents itself around educational terms with emphasis on gender bigotry being undertaken on the pretext of ignorance. Gender, on the other hand, refers to a range of characteristics that define and differentiate between femininity and masculinity. These characteristics include biological and sexual characteristics of either men or women and are constructed socially by societal principles. However, going by the recent years implications by laws instigated to govern such, women in society are currently being held with high regard though their existence in higher circles is minimal. Since most discourses varyingly examine and challenge the ideological machinations of conventional representation, semiosis and metaphysics feminism tends to be tied to post structuralism, psychoanalysis, deconstruction and Marxism. However, on the other hand, feminism has a simple understated difference from theoretical traditions. Among all the schools of thoughts, it is feminism alone that takes as its departure point both the subject of women and women as subjects. This does not however imply that other fields do not give attention to the subject of women but instead when they do, the terms that account for women tend to be essentially masculine, with women only functioning as the eccentricity or disruption of the norm being implied.

The way women are affected by patriarchy is quite different in social affiliation irrespective of whether these differences are based on class, race or sexuality. In our daily living we get to feed into the many benefits that come with the development of the technological landscape with express emphasis on the use of the internet and social media platforms as interactive tools and relationship builders. Though it is considered as the best thing to have ever happened to humankind, it comes with massive repercussions as opposed to benefits with regards to corroding the personalities of our young generation who are the higher percentage engaged in the use of the internet and various social media platforms. New media is one of the most powerful communication platforms in technology but with its innumerable communication benefits it is being described as with regards male dominance on constructivist feminism. However, through the use of technologies, instant communication has been made possible through the offering messaging interfaces for technological support purposes thus building on stronger gender based interactions. In the future technological developers and psychologists could come together and come up with age restrictive technology platforms and technological gadgets specifically designed for educational purposes so as to actualize beneficial returns

Of major importance to this subject matter is the fact that oppression of women is not popularly recognized because the allegiance of women to men often tends to supersede their allegiance to their fellow women from different classes. Although there are certain economic and social factors that separate human beings, it is within these same groups that women are isolated from each other. This intrinsic form of isolation among women themselves is what hinders growth within them because they size as group is not strong enough to have any influence in society.

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